Solstice MFA Program Associate Director Co-Publishes Travel Memoir

[Chestnut Hill, MA, November 2014] The Solstice Low-Residency MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College is pleased to announce the publication of MFA Associate Director Tanya Whiton’s Maine travel memoir, co-created and published with photographer Heidi Killion. (Two Fish Publishing, 2014). They will be celebrating the launch of the book with a booksigning and talk on Tuesday, December 2 at 5 p.m. in the Moncrief and Founder’s Rooms at Pine Manor College, 400 Heath Street, Chestnut Hill, MA.

“Each page of Two for the Road: Adventures in Maine is a revelation. Tanya Whiton’s snappy prose and Heidi Killion’s enigmatic photographs take you to a Maine you won't find in brochures—its quirky hamlets,local haunts andcuriousroadside attractions—and deliver these places with both wit and affection.”

Tanya Whiton and Heidi Killion have been friends and collaborators for more than a decade. Their beat when working as freelancers for the Portland Phoenix (where the essays in Two for the Road were originally published) included boxing and no-holds-barred fighting, a U.S.O. dance with some of the last remaining WWII vets in Maine, and of course, travel. When Tanya’s short story “The Deal” was adapted for an eponymous short film— winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 2003 U.S. National Short Film Competition—Heidi designed the costumes and sets. When they decided to take their work from the Phoenix and create a book, Heidi was awarded a USM SURF grant for photography. In 2010 they started a travel blog http://swimminginoppositedirections.wordpress.com/, and in 2012, they gave a presentation on “Cross-disciplinary Collaboration, Travel, and Identity,” at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, MA. They share the belief that women in the arts need support and encouragement to venture past perceived and actual limitations—twenty percent of the sales proceeds from Two for the Road: Adventures in Maine will be donated to the Maine Women’s Fund.

ABOUT SOLSTICE & PINE MANOR COLLEGE

As an undergraduate institution consistently ranked among the most diverse in the country, Pine Manor College emphasizes an inclusive, community-building approach to liberal arts education. The Solstice MFA in Creative Writing reflects the College’s overall mission by creating a supportive, welcoming environment in which writers of all backgrounds are encouraged to take creative risks. We strive to instill in our students an appreciation for the value of community-building and community service, and see engagement with the literary arts not only as a means to personal fulfillment but also as an instrument for real cultural change.